If you haven’t heard about the “Get Phil On TV” twitter campaign, then you’ve obviously been living under a rock for awhile. The campaign was started by our friends the CFM has created a whirlwind twitter campaign to get the NYBA, Phil Baroni on TV for the UFC 125 card.

We spoke to Statecyde from the CFM to discuss the twitter campaign, their affiliation with Baroni and the release of “The Album”…

Nice speaking to you again Tony, congratulations on the album being such a success. There was a lot of buzz around it via twitter, forums, word of mouth etc. How happy are you with the end product?

Thank you. We are all very happy with the finished product. After we initially released “The Album” we got contacted by some very well-known people in the industry that loved the skits/cameos and wanted to contribute. So we’ve got some more great material in store as well when we release the higher quality MP3download for the official iTunes version.

Yourself and the rest of the coalition have long history with the New York Bad Ass, Phil Baroni. When was the first time you saw him fight and what drew you and the guys too him specifically as a fighter?

I kid you not; the first UFC fight I saw on American network TV was Phil Baroni vs Dave Menne. It was part of a UFC’s Best KO’s special on SpikeTV. It was easily one of the most impressive wins I had ever seen and left a huge mark on me. Soon after that I started getting into PrideFC and saw that Phil was very successful in Japan as well. The guy had the best walkouts in the biz bar none. So when we came up with the idea of cutting walkout tunes for fighters, getting behind the NYBA was a no-brainer.

I never really had Phil down as a hip hop fan, but he seems to be enjoying it when you guys are freestlying in front of him. What’s it like to have such a legend of the sport really appreciate and enjoy your music?

It’s massive. After we shot the video we were all in the studio going “Man… that’s none other than UFC/Pride Legend Phil Baroni bobbing his head to our stuff!!! “It was pretty much like getting a thumbs up from the Pope lol.

Recently, you and the crew have been involved in a Twitter campaign to have Phil Baroni be on the live broadcast of UFC 125. How did the idea of trying to get Phil on the PPV come about?

Well we had hooked up with Phil at AKA (American Kickboxing Academy) first about him getting on “The Album”. After we got his soundbite we went out for sushi and I told him I had a really strong feeling someone (on the main card) was going to get injured/pull out. I mentioned that we could launch an all-out media campaign (Get Phil on TV) to get his fight with Brad Tavares televised if that was the case. Phil was already aware of the success we had generated with our WWYD skits on MMA Scraps Radio, MMA BeatDown Radio and the UG so he was very open minded about it. I told him all we would need is to shoot a little more video with him and have him help promote it via his twitter account @PhilBaroni.

Did you only promote it over twitter, or did you do it over Facebook or any other sort social media as well? It seemed to be a pretty big deal in the MMA world.

We did a little bit of promoting on Facebook and the UG but ultimately we really wanted to catch Dana’s eye with our efforts. Having him notice us was crucial to our campaigns success. Twitter was our primary route because you can connect directly with people instantly and that’s where Dana hangs out the most.

Only a few days ago, Dana let every know that Phil would be a part of the live broadcast on the prelims. How did it feel to know that something you did made a difference on such a huge scale? Not many people can say they’d done that before?

It was extremely rewarding, a dream come true. I called the boys as soon as news hit the wire and we were all going bananas w excitement. As it turned out, the reason Phil’s fight wasn’t going to be televised was the UFC and SpikeTV were in the process of re-negotiating contracts. Dana White actually flexed his muscle and found another network to air Phil’s fight due to the overwhelming support we were able to cultivate on Twitter. Dana truly cares about his fans.

Will Phil be coming out to one of the songs from the album and if so, which song and why?

Although Phil’s fight will be televised, it happens to be on the prelim card so guys don’t get walkout songs or entrances due to time constraints. However that will all change after Phil’s victory on New Year’s Day at UFC 125. Rest assured the next time the NYBA fights for UFC it will be on the main card, and he’ll be walking out to CFM.

Anyone you’d like thank for help with the twitter campaign?

Yes certainly! First of all CFM wants to thank all the hardcore MMA fans on twitter, @PhilBaroni for taken a chance with us. Travis @MMAScrapsRadio for all his support. Mike @MMABeatDown Radio in New York for heavily promoting the campaign, Zara @HaloPR for getting the whole UKMMA scene behind us. MMAJunkie.com @MMAUKBLOG and @WrestlingThumb for the headlines/press support. And last but not least @UFC and @DanaWhite for hearing all the fans out and co-signing on the whole thing/making it official.

This entry will be shorter than usual due to me already having covered most of the news these months in my previous Round Ups. Feel free to check those out if you want more in depth info.

God I hate July. For what it’s worth at least it started off with the biggest fight of the year on the face of this earth, at least size wise. Oh and for those of you who got that reference there: glad you’re with me.

UFC 116 featured the battle of giants that was Brock Lesnar versus Shane Carwin and we all had to realize that Lesnar might not be invincible but he can sure be scary when he works jiu jitsu. Sure, Carwin isn’t really the bee’s knees when it comes to the jits but if you called Brock winning by submission you’re probably his mother or a member of his team. After a first round with nothing but Carwin smashing Lesnar’s face in, losing all of his cardio in the process, Lesnar comes back in the second with a pretty slick arm triangle. Who’d’ve thunk it? I still want to see a Lesnar triangle from the guard though before I’m really impressed.

Anderson Silva got his chance to redeem himself for consecutive terrible performances when he went up against Chael Sonnen at UFC 117 in August. Unfortunately he was struck down with bruised ribs and proceeded to get utterly pwned by Sonnen for the better part of four rounds before sinking in the triangle he’d been looking for all fight. What this tells me is that Sonnen seriously needs to get some sharper black belts around Team Quest. He may have to get a man between his legs at some point but I think even he’ll admit that it’s a price worth paying for that title.

After the fight Sonnen’s dreams of an immediate rematch were put on hold by him testing positive for steroids, thus losing any fans he might have gained in handing Silva his ass in a high hat during their fight. No real comments were made at this time so all that could be done was wait, and so will we until the exciting Roidscapades conclude…

UFC 118 was a historic night for three reasons.

#1: It was the promotion’s first event around the Havahd yahd.
#2: Reality finally set in for a world of stubborn boxing fans.
#3: Frankie Edgar did the impossible.

Considering that I’ve already covered this event in a previous round up I advise that you check that out for more info. In shoht, Bahston was great with great fans and an awesome cahd to make the event memorable. Especially around Havahd. In the yahd.

If I’d told you earlier this year that Rousimar Palhares, the Brazilian leglock machine, would exit 2010 wanking a leg in search for lubricant you would probably think me insane. That may or may not be true but Palhares did indeed wank a leg after his encounter with Nate Marquardt at Ultimate Fight Night 22 on September 16th.

The fight started off good with Palhares shooting for crazy leg locks but Marquardt slipped out and proceeded to beat the crap out of Palhares, who was trying to talk to the ref the entire time. The fight was called a TKO and immediately after this Palhares grabbed Marquardt’s leg and wanked it, proving to everyone there that he was indeed slippery… also this was a bit awkward. Marquardt explained that they’d deliberately built up more of a sweat than usual in the warm ups to counter Palhares’ crazy submission skills. Personally I think he was just blowing soap bubbles backstage and things got out of hand.

Strikeforce, in a ballsy move, signed both Josh Barnett and Paul Daley this year, cementing their status as the dumpster divers of MMA. Daley was a good call, being a young guy who can definitively outgrow his tragic move earlier this year but Barnett is another story. The guy’s been busted three times and his defence once was that he couldn’t’ve done it because he’s not ripped! The man also managed to sink an entire upstart promotion all on his own.

In other words Coker: mind yourself. Just a heads up, that’s all.

And finally we had UFC 119 which could’ve been the most disappointing show of this fall. Sean Sherk somehow decisioned Evan Dunham despite being on the recieving end through most of the fight and getting caught in some fierce chokes. This needs to be adressed though before we go any further: Sean Sherk is a stud. I’m not even kidding, this guy got so close to being finished so many times and each time he powered through by sheer will alone! While I don’t agree with the decision I do agree with anyone who says that Sherk is one bad, bad man.

The lynchpin of this event was originally supposed to be the rematch of Frank Mir and Big Nog, however due to Big Nog deciding not to play Superman for once and let his body heal before stepping inside the ring we instead got his replacement Crocop. Did anyone think this fight would be any good? I distinctly remember sitting on my lunchbreak and reading about this, thinking “Dear god, was there really NO ONE ELSE?”
Trust me when I say I have tons of respect for Mirko Crocop but I could never see him beating Frank Mir at his age. I expected Mir to come out looking for a quick takedown and either ground and pound or submit Crocop in the first, maybe second round. Instead we got what was easily the most boring fight in mainstream MMA all year. We were near Strictly Come Dancing territory here with the soundtrack being a drunken men’s choir rendition of Beat It with all the words replaced with “BOO!”
In the end, of the third round I might add, Mir finally connected with a knee and put Crocop out, prompting insane cheers from a disillusioned audience, who were probably too busy cheering for the fact that a strike had been thrown let alone knocked anyone out. Hopefully we will NEVER see a fight like this in either man’s career again.

Takanori Gomi, hell yes! This dude made his UFC debut at Ultimate Fight Night 21, which aired at 03:00 on April 1st here in the UK, thus making it fair game, bitches! Despite having had a very ho-hum time in the ring since losing to Marcus Aurelio all those years ago in Pride quite a few people were giving him a shot against his opponent Kenny Florian. I guess the theory goes that Florian is overrated because he was on TUF and what have TUF contestants really accomplished anyway bla bla bla. Other, more ridiculous, punters were claiming that Gomi was overrated and didn’t deserve the hype he had back in the day.

For those of you who lived under a rock during the Pride Bushido days (BJ Penn among others, considering he wasn’t ranked #1) Takanori Gomi went on a ten fight win streak on his way to becoming the first Pride FC Lightweight champion, utterly destroying every fighter in his path. Trust me, his competition was not a set of scrubs as at this point in time Pride FC had easily the best Lightweight division in the world.
Gomi also had one of the most exciting fights in Pride history against Tatsuya Kawajiri, so let’s take a look at some vintage Gomi action

That was the Gomi of old however and recent days haven’t been kind to him. He’s sort of the Vitor Belfort of the Lightweights, possessing ridiculous talent and skill but with a mind game that can shoot his best efforts down despite everything. In their battle Florian managed to outwork Gomi every step of the way, using his reach and technical striking to stay one step ahead and eventually sink in a rear naked choke to finish an exhausted Gomi.

Gomi did rebound against Tyson Griffin later this year and redeemed himself with a trademark violent finish. Is Gomi’s fire back or will he continue to be inconsistent? We’ll find out in 2011.

Also in April the UFC held it’s most international event yet, UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi, which was ultimately a disappointment. This was mainly due to some lackluster fights but also due to misplaced hype, in this case in regards to the two main events. People were expecting BJ Penn to absolutely destroy Frankie Edgar, who most didn’t even think deserved a shot for the title. Hell, I’ll admit I was scoffing at the whole deal! Then something weird happened: Edgar won. Disputed as the call was he won/stole the title nontheless and already the event had the crowd confused and a little unruly. Thankfully a rematch was scheduled immediately to settle the score once and for all and allow Penn, who allegedly had a cold (or something), to be deadly serious next time.

Then came the main-main event with Anderson Silva going up against one of the best jiu jitsu players in the world in Demian Mai; Striker verus grappler, Brazilian versus Brazilian, patience versus JESUS FUCKING CHRIST DO SOMETHING!

In the end the fight ended up being marginally more exciting than the Thales Leites fiasco but way more embarassing for Zuffa management who had just put on one of mainstream MMA’s most boring fights this year in front of their new shareholders. Dana White was understandably furious and claimed that Silva would face consequences for his behaviour, which I guess is one explanation for his bruised ribs in the Sonnen fight. Don’t embarass Irishmen and Italians I guess…

Speaking of embarassing Strikeforce aired it’s now infamous event in Nashville on the 17th of April, featuring Gilbert Melendez making professional asshole Shinya Aoki look like an amateur, Dan Henderson getting destroyed by a man half his size and the Diaz brothers keepin it real on prime time TV.

Yeah, that brawl was something… strange. Even after some time it was hard to tell exactly how it started, not to mention why. Ok, the why part is pretty self explanatory; Jason Miller entered the ring (media later claimed he “invaded” the ring but I seriously doubt the Irken Empire would send Mayhem on a stealth mission) while Jake Shields was holding his victory speech, flanked by the Diaz brothers of course. At some point during his mad rant he got in the vicinity of Diaz’s face (which Diaz is still unclear) and they proceeded to take him to the cleaners on live TV. Good old family entertainment which for some reason freaked CBS out and led to months of negotiations having Strikeforce dangerously close to losing their cable deal.
Miller later apologized for the incident, taking full responsibility which wasn’t entirely fair but hey, at least he proved that he can be the bigger man when required.

Following this Nick Diaz and Miller started trading insults online and a fight between the two seemed a very real and very exciting possibility. Thankfully Strikeforce realized how watching a fight like that would be too awesome for our feeble mortal minds and spared us the spectacle in favour of more predictable fights like Diaz vs KJ Noons (spoiler: Diaz totally whupped his ass).

King Mo also became the first man to beat the new and improved Gegard Mousasi using good old fashioned wrestling and the biased Western MMA Rules. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all in favour of good old fashioned wrestling, hell it’s the martial art I myself came from, but holding someone down whilst getting your face bashed in shouldn’t be seen as winning! Didn’t we all agree that Clay Guida getting the nod from one judge against Sanchez was bullshit for the very same reason? We need to make a decision here, and it’s a big one: what’s more important between controlling a fight and trying to finish a fight?

We also saw WEC hold it’s first and only PPV event which turned out incredible fights as usual with one standing head and shoulders above every other fight this year. Chan Sung Jung, AKA The Korean Zombie! took on hard hitting veteran Leonard Garcia in what was, put simply, incredible. This is the fight you show your friends to get them into MMA. It’s that simple.
In fact, I’ll help you out

The event also saw Manny Gamburyan turn off the lights in Mike Brown’s head and Jose Aldo showing Cecil Peoples why leg kicks count. Seriously, if you haven’t seen Urijah Faber’s little diary chronicling his leg after that fight then do so just for the absurdity of it all.

Speaking of absurdity, UFC 113 featured a match that had no shortage of that. Josh Koscheck vs Paul Daley was billed as a classic Striker vs Grappler match from the get go; Koscheck being one of the most decorated wrestlers to show up in MMA and Daley being a muay thai powerhouse with an astonishing record of brutal finishes. Problem with billing a fight as Striker vs Grappler is that thanks to Royce Gracie we already know how that’s gonna end.

Historically this fight will best be remembered for how both men managed to make complete asses of themselves on live TV. First Koscheck over sold an illegal knee to the head to the point where even the crowd noticed (not that you can convince Koscheck of that. Say what you want about him but he’ll stick to a story better than an LA cop) and then Daley, frustrated by the fight and apparently furious from whatever sweet nothings Koscheck whispered in his ear in the closing seconds, landed his best shot of the night long after the final bell had rung. This led to his contract being terminated and supposedly banned from the organization. You know, just like all the other dudes that would never fight in the UFC again.

Shogun Rua got his revenge against Lyoto Machida later that night following a brutal KO that truly came from out of nowhere. There are many speculations as to what Machida may be working on for a future rubber match and if I may be so bold I’d like to throw my hat in the ring: Study Ray Amsley! The guy can kick saws!

The rest of May was relatively dead so to fill this void THQ released the excellent UFC Undisputed 2010, a welcome addition to any game library. No, stop, don’t give me a load of bullshit on how the submission system is broken or the AI being invincible. Stop sucking and enjoy the fact that this game, for all it’s flaws, at least didn’t turn out like EA Sports MMA.
If you guys want an in depth comparison of the two my fee is one quart of Wild Turkey and hour.

JUNE! Only one story really mattered this month and that was the cataclysmic event of Fedor Emelianenko finally losing a fight legitimately. Not only that but to subpar competition like Fabricio Werdum, who’s only a multi-time ADCC and world Jiu Jitsu champion… ok maybe I’m the only one who thought Werdum at least stood a chance here. I won’t lie, I was shocked when it happened but the possibility of a grappler of Werdum’s caliber hitting a submission wasn’t impossible, just highly improbable.

Naturally this loss sparked thousands of doofuses crawling out of the woodwork and whining about how this proved that Fedor was overrated and how a 30 fight win streak really isn’t that big of a deal and bla bla bla. You know what? Go fuck yourselves. There, I said it, go fuck yourselves. Yeah it’s annoying that Fedor never went to the UFC but here’s the cold hard truth: your favourite fighter, no matter who it is, will lose. Eventually they will all lose. As long as you’re competing you run the risk of getting your ass kicked and this time Werdum shocked us all by not only figuring out how to beat Fedor but how to do it early. He deserves respect for that. Fedor is a dude who competed and dominated through several generations of fighters and whether you consider him to be top pound for pound, heavyweight or whatever you at least have to credit him for that. Also, one loss in 34 fights isn’t a necessarily a sign that he’s on the way out so hold your horses until his next fight, which should be soon barring any more crazy Russian antics.

What a year it’s been, huh gang? 2010 was a tumultous time for mixed martial arts for many reasons; greats fell, torches were passed and the scope of MMA was both widened and… not… widened, anti-widened – forget it.

Anyway let’s start off this little round up in exciting fashion with the greatest will they/won’t they of all time: Fedor Emelianenko and the UFC. Yeah back in January of this year there were serious rumors of Fedor finally deciding to stop fighting jobbers in squash-matches (Oh we’ll be returning to that one before this is over, don’t worry) and move up to the big leagues.
You see MMA is very much like World of Warcraft (I know, Anarchy Online is way more fun but no one but you play it. Now pay attention) in that you can theoretically spend all your time in the starting forest killing boars, endlessly grinding towards that level of ultimate badass, but it would be quicker and frankly more exciting if you did it fighting giants (Brock Lesnar), ghouls (Stefan Struve) and blobs (Roy Nelson).

In the end the hype was as usual unfounded, as Zuffa wouldn’t budge and crazy Russians were crazy, so instead of the giants in the distance Fedor would have to battle his way toward a human guillotine who smelled slightly of horse. Ah, I’m sure nothing could go wrong on the safe route (FORESHADOWING!).

Remember Jamie Varner? 2010 hasn’t been kind to this man and it all started back in the 10th of January at WEC 46 when he had go at it with Ben Henderson. Bendo had this one in the bag, locking in one of his trademark guillotines to end the fight in the third round in what was a great battle.
In fact, let’s revisit that fight, shall we?

Not that Varner was hugely popular before this but it seems like after this fight he started more and more to resemble a man wearing a cloak of farts, with very few people admitting to being fans of his. His year would only get worse though, with one fight in particular worth getting back to…

Speaking of polarizing fighters Strikeforce champion and unapologetic badass Nick Diaz became the undisputed Welterweight champion by utterly destroying DREAM FC champion Marius Zaromskis, making me wonder what’s left for this young ass kicking machine. I mean, it’s not like there’s another seemingly unbeatable 170lbs monster sitting comfortably upon a slightly more prestigeous throne- OH WAIT I forgot!

I’m gonna go on paper and say that Diaz needs to move to the UFC and test his might there because no matter how shiny a title seems there is no gold that comes even close to being as great as the one gracing GSP’s waist at the moment. That’s a damn fact.

Hm? February 1 and Joe Warren is in Bellator? Hmm, wasn’t he that darkhorse in DREAM who ended up owning the house? Wonder if this’ll lead anywhere later this year…

UFC 109 won’t be remembered for much but the one thing that will truly stand out is the point where Mark Coleman’s career as a fighter was truly and definitively over. Having had some poor-to-meh showings in the octagon he was given a shot against Dorian Gray-as-played-by-Bruce Willis Randy Couture and it went about as well as you’d expect. Coleman got battered into a living death before being caught in a choke in what was an utterly one-sided affair, proving that Coleman sadly couldn’t contend with a man his own age. The godfather of ground and pound most likely had his last showing in mainstream MMA that night but let’s not dwell on the sad times when we can celebrate the good ones.

Mark Coleman, for turning the act of bashing someone’s face in from his chest – I salute you!

Worth noting as well was UFC 110, not only the first show in Australia but also the point where I came to realize two things: Big Nog’s chin isn’t what it used to be and Cain Velasquez is the real goddamned deal. With a combination from hell he became the first person to knock Noguiera completely unconcious and this turned out to be the first of two serious career achievments.
Guess what the other one is?

March had it’s fair share of major events, such as Dominick Cruz beating Brian Bowles for his WEC Bantamweight championship. Not only did this come kind of out of nowhere but Cruz has gone on to cement himself as one of the most dominant fighters in the division and can enjoy the status of being the first UFC Bantamweight champion now. Slick footwork, incredible speed and beautiful technique, this kid’s gonna be hard to beat. Not that people won’t try.

And finally, to round this off, Rousimar Palhares made an absolute ass of himself for the first time in 2010 by almost ripping off Thomas Drwal’s foot with a heel hook. Palhares of course defended himself with that he didn’t notice the tap… or was it that he didn’t notice the ref? In any case, considering Palhares actions against Marquardt later during the year I’m going to lable him Chaotic Neutral; there’s something about this guy and rules. If you would like to appeal this verdict on behalf of Palhares then simply put your arguments on some paper and shove it straight up your ass, because you are even sadder than me. No one argues Dungeons and Dragons on my watch.